PORTSMOUTH — A new coalition of law enforcement and child safety advocates is turning its attention to human trafficking in the Granite State, and the Port City is likely to be one of its primary focuses.

Attorney General Michael Delaney announced the formation last week of a 33-member commission charged with combating crimes involving underage prostitutes and coerced laborers.

Few instances of human trafficking have been documented in New Hampshire, but authorities believe victims are being moved through the state on a regular basis.

And like other forms of commerce, trafficking in child sex workers has developed in border towns and communities situated near major transportation routes, according to Strafford County Attorney Tom Velardi.

New Hampshire in 2009 was among the first states to make human trafficking a crime, but advocates say a unified statewide effort is needed to put that law to work.

‘‘New Hampshire citizens pay traffickers every weekend to exploit these women for personal satisfaction,’’ Delaney said last week, citing ads investigators have seen on the Internet for sex with ‘‘very young women’’ in Portsmouth, Manchester, ­Salem, and Nashua.

Delaney said the scope of the problem is unclear because police departments statewide report cases differently. The commission aims to change the way law enforcement deals with its victims.

According to Delaney, 200,000 children, some as young as 11, are recruited nation­wide each year by pimps who keep them captive and force them into prostitution.

Sandra Matheson, director of the Office of Victim/Witness Assistance in the Department of Justice, said the victims of human trafficking are sometimes treated as criminals when they need to be treated foremost as victims.

Part of the commission’s mission would be to train law enforce­ment and other first ­responders on how to recognize signs of human trafficking.

“The number one issue we have is we don’t have the numbers because people have not been focused on what human trafficking really is,” Matheson said, “so the biggest thing this commission is trying to do is raise awareness that these children are being exploited — they’re not prostitutes.”

In reality, many child sex victims are not immigrants to the United States, Matheson said. Young American teens — particularly runaways — are often targeted. Many have a history of truancy or sexual abuse at home, she said.

Some 450,000 children run away from home each year in the United States, according to information provided by the attorney general’s office. Research shows that one out of every three teens on the street will be “lured toward prostitution” within two days of leaving home.

“Many times these human trafficking victims don’t even realize they’re victims,” Matheson said. “They have been groomed and they think they’re doing it on their own.”

In one instance in 2011, police discovered that a 16-year-old runaway from Nashua was being advertised for sex services on the website Backpage. Traffickers drove the child through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine before she was rescued at a hotel in Portsmouth, Matheson said.

Another example involved a 16-year-old who Matheson said was recruited at an Occupy New Hampshire rally. She was photographed by her handlers, trained to be a prostitute, then advertised on Backpage, Matheson said. Her first client was an undercover police officer.

“What the commission is looking to do is to really make the public aware that this is happening, and to change the attitudes that we have toward prostitution,” Matheson said.

Although Velardi hasn’t prosecuted any human trafficking cases, he said he has taken part in building an aggravated felonious sexual assault case in which a young man was brought into New Hampshire and sold to someone else for sex. Authorities in Maine prosecuted the human trafficking aspect of the case.

Velardi said the new commission is an important undertaking because it will facilitate collaboration between federal, state and local authorities.

“We know it’s happening,” he said. “The people that run these operations, these sex for money operations, they do so over county lines. They do so over state lines, and that makes it difficult for local prosecutors, for myself, to be able to put together a case.”

The commission includes state and federal law enforcement agents, victim advocates, community activists, and lawmakers.

Authorities say the best inves­tigative tool they have to fight human trafficking is anonymous tips to law enforcement from people — neighbors, teachers, nurses — who see something that does not look right.

Delaney pointed out that the commission is being created on the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared freedom for slaves held in the rebellious states.

“This is a huge issue,” Velardi said. “It’s a form of exploitation that needs to be routed out and stopped. We do a really good job of prosecuting the individual cases, and this seems to be the next level of sophistication in the sex industry, so we need to be prepared to meet the battle.”